The last week has been crazy. It was mentally and physically exhausting. Some of it I handled pretty well, and some of it… not so much. I learned a few lessons along the way that I would like to share as I reflect on the week.

Lesson Number One – Plan for the unexpected

I did not publish a blog last Sunday. I had managed to publish something 5 Sundays in a row, but last week I failed. What happened? I didn’t plan ahead, and I most certainly didn’t plan for the unexpected. The previous week, there were a couple of things that came up at work that required a lot of time that I had planned on devoting to a few other important, time-sensitive tasks. As a result, I ended up having to go into the office on Saturday to do “work stuff.” I usually save Saturdays for homework (I started back to grad school in June), but I ended up having to get it all done last Sunday because “work stuff” took precedence on Saturday. That, in and of itself, isn’t all that bad. However, I’ve also been doing most of my blog writing on Sundays. There was a compounding effect that took place last week. The “urgent matters” took up time that I’d planned for other tasks. The other tasks took up the time I had planned for homework, and then my homework and my mid-term kept me up until almost midnight on Sunday night. I was frustrated because I didn’t get a blog published, but what was I going to do at that point? I could have stayed awake and threw something together, but the quality probably wouldn’t have been very good. I also knew that Monday was going to be exhausting, so I opted to take the “L” and go to sleep.

Lesson Number Two – Empower good people

Monday was exhausting. Our high school hosts a community pep rally every year. If I was guessing, I’d say we usually have nearly a thousand people there. This year, we hosted it on Monday night. This event is one of the big events that I oversee as an administrator on our campus. It takes A LOT of work to get it organized, and frankly, there is no way I could get it all done by myself. We have 40+ student groups setting up carnival booths. We have vendors and sponsors to help set up. We have bounce houses and a dunk tank to get ready. After the carnival portion, we conduct the actual “pep rally” where we recognize 40+ sports teams, clubs, and student organizations, and then we present our homecoming court to the community. There are a lot of moving pieces! How did I do it? I didn’t. I can’t take any of the credit. We have several aspiring administrators on our campus, and they have been asking for responsibilities that would help them get experience. I sat down with two of them about a month ago for a short meeting. We created a vision for what the event would be like. I told them to let me know what they needed, and then I let them run with it. Frank Weiss and Alex Caldwell did an outstanding job, and they deserve all of the credit! If they needed me to take care of something, I did, but for the most part, they put the whole thing together. They just used me for manual labor in the Texas heat on Monday! If I would have tried to organize it all by myself, I would have gotten it done, but I am pretty sure of two things: 1) There’s a good chance the event would not have been nearly as good if I had done it by myself. They put together the best community pep rally we’ve had in the four years of our high school’s existence. 2) I would have neglected other important responsibilities that affected students and teachers on my campus (remember those “urgent” things that popped up last week). If you have good people asking for opportunities, find ways to empower them, and help them grow.

Lesson Number Three – You will never make everyone happy

On Tuesday night, I saw a tweet that said one of the area football teams had rescheduled Friday’s game for Thursday night due to impending weather. It concerned me a little bit because Friday night was our homecoming night. Wednesday morning, we started getting reports of some serious weather that would be heading our way for the weekend. That began a flood of schedule changes around the Dallas area. We had the opportunity to move our game to Thursday night and to play it indoors, but if we did it, we would not have time to make all of the adjustments necessary to have the homecoming presentation before the game. We spent a good chunk of time discussing the positives and negatives, and ultimately, we decided to move the game to Thursday and crown our homecoming king and queen during our regularly scheduled pep rally during the school day on Friday. If you know anything about Texas high school football, you know that a game is so much bigger than “just a game.” We had to think about the football team, the cheerleaders, the band, the drill team, and the 500-600 students in the student section. We are talking about keeping nearly a thousand students safe and dry, and we were guaranteeing that all of the participating groups would be able to showcase the skills that they’d worked so hard on all week. When we looked at it like that, it seemed like an easy decision. Within minutes of us deciding to make the switch, I was getting chewed out by frustrated parents. I understood their frustration with the change, but this decision was what was best for the 1800+ students on our campus. Sometimes you just have to be okay knowing that you are not going to be able to make everyone happy. That’s a tough one for me because I really like to make people happy if at all possible. It’s just how I’m wired. When it is all said and done, I’m glad we made the switch. It stormed like crazy Friday night, and it rained all day on Saturday. If we hadn’t have moved the game, it would have gotten canceled, and that would have been really unfortunate for our students.

Lesson Number Four – Tell people that you love them and how important they are to you

Thursday morning, while we should have been getting pumped up about the big game, one of my colleagues got the phone call that I dread the most. His mother called and told him that his dad passed away suddenly that morning. It was completely unexpected. As far as anyone knew, he was in good health. He was reffing ball games less than a week ago. It wasn’t my dad, and I’ve only know this colleague for 6 or 7 months. However, we’ve become pretty close, and I felt like I got kicked in the stomach the rest of the day. The next night one of my colleagues lost one of her best friends of nearly 20 years. Another completely unexpected loss. My heart hurts for them both. You just never know when something like that is going to happen, so take every chance you get to tell people how you feel about them. Garth was really on to something when he wrote, “If Tomorrow Never Comes…”

Lesson Number Five – Reach out to someone to let them know you’re thinking about them

Saturday morning, I was sitting on the couch watching College Gameday, and I got a random text. Stephen Mackey just wanted to check in to see how I was doing. He asked me about grad school and life. That started a conversation that lasted about 20 minutes. Not only did his random text provide an opportunity for us to strengthen our relationship, it made my day. After the events of the last few days, I was in a little bit of a funk. I wasn’t in a really bad place, but I was thinking about my friends and what they were struggling with. Mackey’s text got me thinking about the good things in life. It got me to focus on goals and a vision for where I’m headed with grad school. Mackey didn’t really have a reason to check on me. I’ve only met him once, and we pretty much only interact on social media. That’s just the kind of guy he is, and that’s why he’s having the impact on coaches and athletes that he is. Any of us can shoot a quick text to someone. Take a few minutes to do it, or better yet, write them a handwritten note/letter if you have time. Those always brighten people’s day, and it’s something I’m trying to do more of this school year.

Lesson Number Six – Morning routines are important

I’ve been crushing my morning routine since school started. I went five straight weeks of waking up somewhere between 4:30 and 5:00 every weekday. I’d take an ice cold shower, get my workout in, do my mindfulness meditation, and read a selection from my Bible every morning. The results of this routine have been outstanding. My stress levels have been lower than they were at any point last year, and for the most part, I think I’ve been able to stay much more even-keeled. Then this week happened, and I completely neglected my routine. It started by staying up late to do homework last Sunday (should have planned for the unexpected). I knew Monday was going to be exhausting, so I decided to sleep in. I got in late Monday night. I was exhausted, and I decided to sleep in Tuesday morning with hopes that a full night’s sleep would get me back on track. I’m not really sure what happened Tuesday night, but I went to sleep late again and slept in on Wednesday, missing my routine once more. Wednesday afternoon, it all caught up with me. After a full day of getting ripped because we changed the game schedule, I didn’t handle myself as well as I should have. Something else happened, and I snapped at one of my colleagues. I immediately caught myself and apologized, but I couldn’t believe that I did it. I’ve been in this role for over a year now, and I think I’ve become known for being pretty steady. I was shocked that I’d allowed the events of the day to get to me. I reflected on it all night, and the only thing I can point to was the fact that I had missed out on my morning routine all week. Needless to say, I’m fired up about setting my alarm for 4:30 tomorrow morning and starting my week off the right way. Own your life one day at a time. Those microactions add up over time.

Wrap it up!

Thanks for sticking with me through this post. I’m sure reading about my week wasn’t the most exciting thing for you, but I am hopeful that one of these six lessons strikes a chord and helps you get just a little bit better today. Let’s go out and make this a great week. Love people. Serve people. Add value.

See you next week!!!